Weekend Results

Tika had one of her best USDAA weekends this weekend. In fact, she ran beautifully and we seemed to be very much in sync, so that we got through several very difficult courses without an off course or even a misstep on any of the difficult parts that were knocking a lot of excellent dogs out of the competition. We do have some things to work on, however—I'll post a separate laundry list.

First, the statistics: Tika Qualified in 3 of 9 runs, for a 33% Q rate—all on Saturday, dang; thought it was going to be a GREAT weekend, but Sunday wasn't quite as successful. Still, it's definitely one of our best USDAA Masters-level weekends. For comparison, here's a list of USDAA trials since Tika made it to Masters in all classes:

Labor Day '04	4 of 11	36% (like Jake, her first all-Masters weekend is her best, and then we go downhill for a lonnng time--)
Sept '04 Woodland	1 of 7	14%
Oct Madera	1 of 8	13%
Jan '05 Santa Rosa	0 of 6	0%
Feb Turlock	2 of 10	20%
Feb Prunedale	1 of 7	14%
Apr Dixon	3 of 12	25%
Apr Sunnyvale	3 of 9	33%
Aug Prunedale	2 of 10	20%
Labor Day	1 of 10	10%

The best part was that Tika finally earned a Masters Jumpers leg! And it was on one of those very difficult courses that knocked out a lot of dogs, AND she placed 4th! This completes our Master Agility Dog title (MAD), which is a very big thing. A friend took a couple of us out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate, which doesn't happen for just any title. Actually, it was a surprise treat: We were really just going out to dinner to be sociable, and then she announced that she was treating us in celebration. It's nice to have friends.

In addition, she Qed in the Grand Prix, but we missed the up on the dogwalk again, dropping us to 8th place and they gave fancy ribbons down only to 6th place, so once again we didn't get a pretty placement ribbon for GP. But it was a beautiful, smooth run that I was proud of.

She ran completely clean in the Pairs Relay; once again, our partner had a bobble for a 5-point fault, but this time we were both plenty fast enough to earn a Q, but not a placement.

So in the next 3 weekends of USDAA competition:

• A Standard Q earns our Standard Master title
• A Relay Q earns our Relay Master title
• We still need 2 Snooker SuperQs, 4 Jumpers, and 4 gamblers (in addition to preceding) for our ADCH. At this rate—one each per year!?—it'll be a very long time!
• Two grand Prix Qs earns us the right to compete in the GP at the 2006 Nationals
• One Steeplechase Q earns us the right to compete in the Steeplechase at the 2006 Nationals

The competition never ends!

Oh—runs we DIDN'T qualify?

• Saturday Standard: Table refusal (see Laundry List) but otherwise beautifully done.
• Saturday Snooker: Very stupid mom. (Set her up for the wrong first obstacle.)
• Sunday Standard: Up contact on dogwalk and table refusal. Only 6 of 64 dogs Qed, and we were one of the few who managed to get through it without an offcourse. And then lost it on these stupid things!
• Sunday Snooker: My wrong position after contact (see laundry list) for an offcourse.
• Sunday Jumpers: 2 bars followed by an offcourse.
• Sunday Gamblers: An extraordinarily difficult gamble. Only 6 of 67 dogs got it—and among them, only 4 handlers. Also Tika scootched over the start line, wasting time, and popped out of the weaves in the opening, losing 7 points.